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Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Baby Left for Dead as Man plays Video games

On January 11th, 5 month old Mikara Ranui Jarius Reti died from internal bleeding as Trent Owen Ngaruhe Hapuku (pictured), whom was responsible for her safetly was too engrossed in a Playstation game to notice the baby was in pain. It was reported that the mother, Jamie Reti left the child in the care of the 21 year old for 45 minutes as she tended to her other child (such as bathing and feeding).

Upon returning, Reti saw that Hapuku was holding the baby whilst playing a playstation game. Mikara was reported as looking pale and had vomitted over Hapuku's shoulder, at this sign the child was taken to hospital immediately where she died within minutes.

It was revealed that within 45 minutes Mikara had suffered a blunt-force injury to her abdomen, which in turn fractured 4 ribs causing the internal bleeding. Hapuku later said to the police that "He knew he would get the blame, because he was the only one with the baby." Hapuku reports that he does not know how the Mikana recieved the injuries.

During the autopsy it was revealed that the Mikana was suffering from rib fractures that were weeks old.

To be honest this seems like a general case of neglect and not one really related to video games specifically, it's hard to tell if there was any foul play here on the part of Hapuku or on the mother with the revelation of previous rib fractures. All that said though Hapuku should have been aware if there was any problem with the child as it would have been noticable if was. We may have to watch this case and see how it pans out, but my money is on general neglect and it's a shame that it's caused the death of an infant.